Portret van een baby, zittend in een rotanstoel 1872 - 1900

Albert Daniel Prummel made this photograph of a baby in a rattan chair, likely near the turn of the 20th century, given Prummel's working life. The photograph presents an interesting case study in the institutional history of photography and its relationship to middle-class aspirations. During this period, photography studios flourished, offering portraiture services that were once the exclusive domain of painting to a broader segment of society. This image, with its formal composition, reflects the desire of families to capture and preserve images of their loved ones, marking important milestones in their lives. The baby, dressed in pristine white, sits regally in a rattan chair, a piece of furniture that could signify both comfort and a certain level of bourgeois sophistication. Understanding the social conditions that shaped artistic production, like the rise of photography as a middle-class pursuit, helps us to avoid idealizing it. By consulting sources such as census records, studio advertisements, and manuals of photographic practice, we can better understand the meaning of this piece.